Papou Streams
by Albi90
Summary: Being a psychologist, he knew very well the power of symbolism some objects had...he just wished he'd had known sooner about the symbolism of THAT one. Demyx/OC


**Chapter 1: The Encounter**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Kingdom Hearts, those rights are reserved to Square-Enix and Disney. the only thing I can claim as my own are my characters which are the fruit of my imagination. **

**Okay so this is my first fic ever, so please go easy on me (hides behind computer). I don't mind criticism as long as it isn't the flaming one (which really doesn't fall in the category of criticism ¬¬ ) if you don't like my fic tell me why and give me some tips on how to improve it; would be very happy if you did this in the most polite way as possible. taking all of this into consideration, please enjoy the fic ^.^**

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It was around December when we opened up. The hanging sign that we had ordered had been put up. It was simple yet rustic, made out of pine. The carving and painting had been done by Geppetto, a professional carpenter from Traverse town. The sign read "Delphinus, psychologist office"

It was decorated with the constellation Delphinus, hence the name, and with an actual dolphin drawn around the outline of the constellation. It wasn't very original, but it was the best logo we could come up with that looked a bit sophisticated yet welcoming.

Two golden plaques were set onto the doors. One of them read "Dr. Selena Opal. Psychologist and Physiotherapist" that was my friend's plaque. The other read "Dr. Ivan Reyes. Psychologist"

That was me.

Life used to be normal before all of this. Selena and I went to the same university. We used to study psychology, and Selena studied physiotherapy as a minor. It all happened during our master's last year.

We were hanging around the library. I was doing some research whilst Selena was reading some Freud. I was about to turn the page when I noticed something odd. The skull's eyes in the picture, which was a photo of the painting "Soldier take warning" by Salvador Dalí, had started to turn darker than usual.

I thought it was just my mind playing tricks, but I knew that something was immediately going wrong when dark spots started to appear not only in my book but in the library too.

Either I was going blind or something unnatural was happening.

When Selena started screaming I knew it had to be the second one.

She was pointing her finger at one of the dark spots on the shelves. There where two yellow eyes gleaming in that swirling darkness. It jumped onto the table next to us. It was a jet black monster that had a humanoid shape and two antlers; but believe me, it wasn't human at all.

Without thinking twice, we ran away towards the exit, but suddenly there where hundreds of these creatures surrounding us.

We were cornered in the history section with no escape route in sight. We were going to be history. The irony of the situation would have made me snicker were it not for how sharp those claws looked on those monsters.

In a desperate attempt, Selena threw a book at one of them. It mustn't have liked heavy reading, for it got a bit more spastic than the rest.

I thought that unless a door suddenly materialized next to us, we were goners...and, in a sense, it did. To be more precise it was a black hole from which we could see a light in the far distance, which was good enough for me. I pulled Selena along into the hole and we ran towards the light. When we reached it we were bathed in it and, before we knew it, we where in Twilight town.

That was almost a year ago. One of our friends had also turned out in Twilight town. As for the rest, we didn't know where they were; we still hope somewhere safe.

Apparently we weren't the only ones in such a predicament, there where many people and creatures, to my surprise, whose worlds had suffered the same fate. That's when I learned about the existence of other worlds apart from our universe.

It was unbelievable to say the least, but I got used to it after a couple of weeks.

The people in Twilight town were kind enough to help us out the first couple of months. We did all kinds of jobs to earn munny for about three months 'till we decided to start our own psychologist office. We bought an old house in Sunset Terrace and renovated it a bit. Of course we had to ask for a loan, but we are confident that we will be able to pull it off.

And here we were, December and our shop newly opened. The only thing that was missing was a secretary. It's not like we couldn't do without one; but if you think about it, it wouldn't be really efficient if we didn't.

So that morning, December 10th, I called my friend Manna from the office.

She was one of our friends back in high school, and the one who had also landed in this city. She had adapted real quick and was now working at the Twilight Daily.

Being a professional journalist that she was, she had gotten quite a decent post, and her articles were mostly seen in the front page every single day. In other words, I had a strong ally on my side. She was the one who had made sure that our ad was put on the front page, and for a reasonable price too.

It took a while before someone picked up the phone.

A professional female voice answered.

"Good Morning, Twilight Daily. Manna Reynard speaking, can I help you?"

"Hey Foxy, guess who?"

"Evee! How's the office going? Got any people to operate on already?"

"Well considering we just opened our office; no, we didn't get any patients. And to remind you again, it's a PSYCHOLOGIST'S office. We don't operate on people."

"You know I'm always going to ask that very same question every day even though I know that fact, right?" she said obviously putting on her sarcastic face;even though I couldn't see it I could feel it.

"Yes, unfortunately I do."

"Well, what did you call for? It's gotta be important 'cause you only call in the morning when you need my help."

"How did you know?" I said sarcastically.

"Female intuition, plus the fact that I know you too well."

"Well, you're right about that, I need your help…again. Can you put me a very important ten-lines-long employment ad, which I just wrote, into the job section? Pretty please? I need to get a secretary, and pronto." I pleaded.

"10,000 munny per week" she replied bluntly.

"5,000" I knew I could get cheaper than that.

"7,500"

"Deal!" what did I tell you?

"Okay then, just bring it to me today with the money! Oh and by the way, out of curiosity, does your ad specify that it has to be a male?" I could sense her face sneering slyly .

"Har-har-har Foxy, not funny, just looking for someone who is responsible and caring enough to take care of scheduling the meetings and all that stuff" I replied rather stoically.

"Oh I understand completely, especially the other 'stuff' " she laughed loudly, which probably caused the shaking of some foundations "anyway, be here with your ad in half an hour or so 'cause I've gotta leave soon, there has been sightings of weird white creatures roaming around the old mansion and I'm going to check it out later today, gotta keep up my reputation as a journalist."

"Sure, I'll be there. Just don't ditch me like you did last time"

"Hey! That girl was smoking hot, I simply had to take some pictures of her!" she replied defensively.

"Uh-huh, sure, blame your uncontrollable sex drive." I said rolling my eyes "Anyway, See you there later. Bye."

"Laters." she hung up.

I stood up from the desk, and picked up the ad. It was a pretty simple one, not much in it except some small text requesting a secretary who's available full time from Monday till Thursday.

The person had to be responsible and had to have some experience in the area. In return they would receive a pretty nice payment: 150,000 munny per month. Apart from that, the ad had the phone number and address of the office.

I wanted to put our logo on it, too, but the stamp hadn't been made yet. There were so many things that had yet to be done, it was amazing we had actually opened. But the munny was running kind of short so we had to work some to earn some, even with limited equipment.

I was about to leave when Selena's head popped from the door of her office. Her hair, originally brown, was dyed black and was tied up in a high ponytail.

It was obvious she had straightened it, since yesterday he whole hair was frizzy and all over the place, and now it was magically straight. She wore black pants and a hoody with black and white squares. Her nails were painted black, but apart from that she hadn't applied any make-up on her. You could say she looked rather Emo.

But believe me, she isn't.

"Who was that you were talking to on the phone?" she asked; softly, as always.

"I just called Foxy, we get to put our ad for only 7,500 munny per week."

"Sweet!" she squeaked "I just wonder how she manages to convince her boss into making such deals?"

"With lots of leather and cleavage." I said, cracking up a smile at her.

"If Foxy heard you she'd hit you!"

"No, She would put me on top of a humongous pile of newspapers and then push the whole thing down." she actually would, which was the scary part.

"Anyway, when you come back you have to help me sort out some things, because we just got ourselves a patient" she said, giving me the victory sign.

"That fast? I didn't know people in this town had such an urgent need for psychologists!"

I picked up my coat and put the want-ad in the pocket

"I guess our ad worked pretty well then!"

"Guess it did."

I had to thank Foxy for that later

"Okay, I'll be back at around 11 o'clock, do you want me to get you something from Market Street?"

"Oh! actually, I would like you to buy me a Sunseter filled with chocolate from the bakery." she replied happily.

"Okay, but you'll have to buy me a Stellar someday in return."

"That is so ungentlemanlike of you Evee!" she said, puffing her cheeks.

"I don't recall any contract saying I had to be." I replied, poking her cheeks.

"Just go already before Foxy leaves!" she said whilst pushing me outside.

"I'm going already, gee! You're so aggressive Selena! You should get a boyfriend! At least I wouldn't be the only one bearing your tantrums" I replied jokingly.

"If you think this is aggressive then wait 'till I turn fifty; plus it is you who needs a boyfriend not me."

Dead on, as always.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. See you later today Luna."

"Bye-bye Evee!"

And just like that I found myself on the cold street. I looked into the horizon. The sun was stuck in its perpetual twilight, just as always. It took sometime to get used to it as well as to sleep with it, but after three weeks of being here we did, along with checking our time regularly. It had snowed yesterday so there was plentiful of it everywhere, reflecting the sun into my eyes. It had even covered our sign, which hung motionless above me. I moved the sign a bit and the snow fell on my head, melting instantly making my dirty blonde hair look dirtier, and not in a good way.

Smart, Ivan, Smart.

Two stray cats that had been fighting over some scraps had stopped fighting, and watched me with an amused faced. they snickered for a bit and ran away.

The day had just started and I had a feeling it was going to be a long day already.

x x x x x x x

"_*Ding-Dong*_ _next stop, Central station._"

I stepped out of the tram.

It was 10:20am, ten minutes before I had to meet up with Foxy.

The station wasn't too full at this hour of the day. I walked to Market Street's Station Heights. Some old ladies were browsing inside the shops, probably already thinking about what they should make for dinner tonight. Some university students were also there, looking for cheap appliances, plushies and other miscellaneous objects to set up in their apartments.

I kept on walking downhill until I reached a fairly tall building standing next to a garage.

"Twilight Daily" shone brightly with Neon lights onto my face. I've always presumed their number one policy has never been energy saving.

Their logo was basically the picture of the station's clock tower with the sunset behind it. Tacky, but they brought the best newspaper you could get in this town, as well as the only one.

I pushed the glass door open, and as soon as I entered the woman at the front desk spoke to me.

"Good morning, Ivan!" she chirped

"Good morning, Alida. I came here to talk to Manna, we were going to-"

She cut in before I could say more.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Reynard left not a while ago."

Oh no, she did it again.

"Do you know where she went off to?"

"Sorry, I really don't know. You know how she is, she never tells anyone where she goes when she goes out to work. She probably went some place with promising headlines."

"Okay, well, thanks for the information. I'll go search for her."

"Good luck." she said sympathetically.

Fortunately for me, Foxy had told me. She said something about odd creatures at the old mansion. She is going to get a piece of my mind when I find her. She always does this to me. I headed downhill towards the tram common, trying no to slip on any ice. I knew exactly where to find this old mansion. Everybody in this town does. The only way to access it though was through a hole in a wall, which was next to the Market Street's main trash disposal.

I went through the hole and found myself in the woods of the old mansion, or the Mysterious Woods as the kids liked to call it.

It wasn't very big, but you could get lost if you didn't know your way, which is exactly what happened.

I roamed for around twenty minutes and I still didn't see any mansion, or any exits from this place for that matter. On top of that it had started snowing, making it harder to see. I was almost going to scream in desperation when I heard a sound.

No, it wasn't just a sound. It was music.

It sounded like a guitar of sorts. Music equalled person, which equalled my escape route.

Somebody up there still loved me!

I listened carefully, following the music's location. After a couple of minutes I reached a clearing. In it was a young man sitting on a tree stump. He was probably around my age. He was playing a guitar of some sorts. That's when it hit me that I actually I knew this guy from the tram. He used to take the same one with me, the one to Market Street, until he stopped coming, which happened around November. Probably found an apartment there or something.

His hair was dirty blond and stood out due to the hairstyle. It was a mix of a Mohawk and a mullet; a mull-hawk. The thing though was that his sides weren't completely shaven off so it looked good on him, in an odd way. His eyes were the colour of mesmerizing emerald, the type you couldn't take your eyes off. He must have been playing for a while, since he had a thin layer of snow on his coat.

I leaned against a tree and listened.

The song was very soothing, it somehow reminded me of the sea.

He didn't notice me standing there.

I was about to ask him the way out of these damned woods when a white flurry tackled me and dragged me along with it. I was pinned against a tree by that white thing and snow fell on me. I pushed it off me, and gaped. The thing that just attacked was some sort of mannequin, only with even less body mass than the actual ones, which was quite a feat considering they looked like skeletons nowadays.

Where the head was supposed to be was a hood instead with an open zipper, there seemed to be only emptiness inside it. Before I could react the mannequin started slithering in the air and tangled itself around me. One of his limbs went around my mouth so I bit it as hard as I could.

I may not know karate, but I know crazy!

That didn't seem to work since it coiled around me tighter. The creature wouldn't let go and I was running out of air.

This was it, I was going to die here, it was the end. And there were so many things I had wanted to do in life!

I was thinking all these cliché thoughts when I heard a loud thud next to me.

The mannequin unleashed me and slithered away like a snake. Someone helped me up. I took a couple of big breaths before I turned my head up. It was the guitar-thingy player from before.

Did he just save me?

"Hey, you okay?" he said worriedly

"I…I guess…but...did you just save me from that thing?" I said incredulously

"Yeah, I heard some weird noises over here so I checked it out, and you had this weird thing wrapped around you, so I hit it!" he said proudly whilst holding up his guitar-thingy

There was some splintered wood at the edge of it.

"Thanks, and...sorry about your..." I said pointing at the splintered end.

"Oh, you mean this?" He laughed "It's nothing, I can patch this babe up in no time. It has gone through much worse."

"Oh…okay."

An awkward silence followed suit. It seemed like hours had passed until he spoke again.

"Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?" He asked.

"Oh, well, you might have seen me in the tram once or twice."

"Yeah, that's right, Now I remember. You're that guy who'd always had his nose stuck on a book.", he said smiling.

Was that supposed to be a compliment? I really didn't know, my head was still a bit fuzzy.

"And I know you too. You're that guy in the tram who'd always carry around...something...that looked like a...guitar." I replied rather lamely, not really knowing what to call that instrument.

"Well as you can see it is a sitar." he said as a matter-of-factly.

"Right..." because everyone knows what a sitar looks like.

"Anyways, the name's Myde! I work down at the Melodious Nocturne, just around the corner. Nice meeting you uh…didn't catch your name?"

"Oh sorry, my name's Ivan. I am one of the psychologists at Delphinus, a new psychologists office we just opened up at Sunset Terrace, heard about it?" I said happily, surprising myself in the process. I had almost got killed by a mannequin and I was promoting a psychologist office.

Great, guess I'll have to get some treatment from Selena.

"Hmm…I think I saw an ad about it in the newspapers." he said pensively.

Wow, so people actually bothered checking the ads?

"Anyways I've actually gotta go, my boss will kill me if I'm late for work. I'll see you around I guess!" He waved me a goodbye and started walking away.

I waved backed like an idiot, not realizing until a couple of seconds later that I was still lost in here.

"Wait! Can you show me the way out first? I'm…lost and…can't find the...exit…" I mumbled, obviously embarrassed by how stupid I sounded.

"Sure! I'm guessing you came in from the hole, right?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Then follow me, I'll show you the way."

I ran up to him and we started walking. After some minutes he tried to strike some conversation.

"So, psychologist, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Any reason why?"

"Well, I guess because I have always been fascinated by human behaviour, plus I've always liked helping people out by listening to them." I said casually.

"I see..."

"What about you? Why a...sitarist, was it?"

His eyes suddenly light up.

"Yeah, you see I have always loved music! And though I can play several instruments, I have always liked the sitar the best!" He said glowing.

"It does sound really nice." I said smiling. His energy was very contagious.

"I know, right? It's like each note I play becomes a wave that travels over the vast sea that is life, you know what I mean?."

"Uh-huh." I actually understood very little of what he'd just said. Many years of study and the artsies' way of thinking still eluded me.

"So what kind of music do you like?" he asked.

"Who, me? Well I like all kinds of things, but I guess I could say that my favourite has always been Jazz."

"Really? Did you know that the Melodious Nocturne has a Jazz evening every Friday? You should check it out sometime!" He said winking at me.

This, in turn, made me blush like a stupid little schoolgirl. I noticed just how cute he actually is.

"I'll think about it..." I said trying to avoid his gaze.

Fortunately we were reaching the hole as this happened, so I was spared more blushing. Not that he would notice since my cheeks were already red from the cold.

As we got closer to the hole I noticed a woman standing next to it.

She had Dirty blond hair, a very nice leather jacket, tight jeans, and a very pro looking camera.

Foxy.

"YOU!" I screamed.

She turned around and looked surprised to see me here.

She stared at me with her I'm-in-trouble-right?-face.

"Oh! Evee I'm so sorry! 'tGetA

Photo,WhichIdidn'tAnywayAndOhMyGodI'mSoSorry!she blurted out.

"You promised you wouldn't ditch me this time!" I screamed at her

"I know, I'm sorry, okay? It is not easy being a journalist you know!" she yelled back

a voice interrupted our little fight.

"Excuse me"

It was Myde.

"What!" we both asked almost screaming.

"Did you just say journalist?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Are you by any chance Manna Reynard?"

"Yeah, what if I-"

"OH MY GOD! I am a fan of your articles!"

he squealed whilst holding her hands. His eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of his sockets.

"Ooookaaaaay! Who's this?" she said looking at me accusingly.

"Oh, forgot to tell you that I almost got killed by one of your white creatures. This here is Myde and he saved me from that thing." I said nonchalantly.

"Wait, WHAT? You guys got to see those things!" we both nodded simultaneously "That's perfect! You two are coming to my office with me!

Wait, What? Oh no, I did not want to be interviewed by HER! She was more inquisitive than the inquisition itself.

"But I can't! I have to help Selena with the scheduling of the new patient!"

That was a perfectly sounded alibi, plus it was true so I had Selena to back it up.

"Oh, she can handle it perfectly without you. Plus you'll get a 50% discount for your ad" she said sing-alongy.

Damn she was good.

"Okay, fine I'll go, but I don't know if Myde might-"

He jumped up before I could finish my sentence

"Are you crazy! Of course I'll go!" he said joyfully.

"Okay then guys, let's go!"

she disappeared through the hole.

"I can't believe it. I'm being interviewed by THE Manna Reynard!"

"Yeah, I can't believe it either" sarcasm seeping out from every word I said.

"Where do you know her from?"

"Long story"

Foxy suddenly reappeared from the hole

"Hurry up, you guys! I don't have all day, you know? I still have to do an interview with the makers of the sea-salt ice-cream." She disappeared just as swiftly.

Yup, today was going to be a long day.


End file.
